21 April 2026 - The seventh Data Mesh Belgium Meetup in Leuven, brought together data professionals, architects and innovators for an evening of practical insights and forward-looking discussions on Data Mesh.

A warm welcome to a vibrant community

The evening kicked off with food, drinks and informal networking, setting the tone for what would become an engaging and content-rich meetup. Attendees quickly filled the office space, exchanging ideas and experiences before the official welcome by Tom De Wolf, who briefly introduced the agenda and highlighted the importance of community-driven knowledge sharing in the evolving Data Mesh landscape.

Open standards: the backbone of scalable Data Mesh

The first session, “Open Standards for Data Mesh” by Simon Harrer, delivered a structured and insightful overview of one of the most critical enablers of Data Mesh: standardization.

Simon emphasized how open standards are becoming essential to avoid vendor lock-in and enable interoperability across data ecosystems. He explored key areas such as:

• Data contract standards
• Data product standards
• Semantic interoperability standards
• and others

From theory to practice: starting with data products

After a short break, Jef Van Hulle took the stage with a refreshing and pragmatic talk: “You Don’t Need a Data Mesh to Start with Data Products.”

Rather than advocating for large-scale transformation programs, Jef challenged the audience to rethink how Data Mesh adoption begins. His core message: start small, deliver value early.

Drawing from his experience in the utilities sector, he demonstrated how organizations can:

• Introduce data products incrementally
• Apply product thinking to data (ownership, lifecycle, quality)
• Work within existing teams and governance structures
• Build momentum without the friction of a “big bang” transformation

Looking ahead: Data Mesh Live 2026

The meetup also served as a stepping stone toward Data Mesh Live (June 11–12, 2026), a two-day conference dedicated to exploring the challenges and solutions of Data Mesh adoption in depth.

Key takeaways from Data Mesh Belgium Meetup #7

• Open standards are critical for scalable, future-proof Data Mesh architectures
• Data products can be a practical starting point, without requiring a full transformation first
• Incremental adoption beats big-bang approaches in real-world environments

The 7th Data Mesh Belgium Meetup successfully balanced vision and pragmatism, offering both strategic insights and actionable approaches. A big thank you to AE for their warm hospitality, and to all attendees for making this event another success. See you next time!